In my copending application, Ser. No. 39,372, filed May 15, 1979, now abandoned I disclose a microballistic printer in which a plurality of solid projectiles are propelled from a gun for free flight to a platen spaced from the gun. A paper, or other sheet material, is fed across the platen beneath a printing medium. The gun is so controlled that the projectiles striking the printing medium will produce the desired pattern. The projectiles in my microballistic printer are shown as tungsten carbide balls, about 0.800000.+-.0.000001 mm. in diameter. These may be fed to the gun at the rate of about two thousand per second. The balls are fed to the gun by a feeder which may be a toothed rotating member. A counter is provided for stopping the feeding of balls to the gun after the number of balls necessary for a program or sub-program being printed have been fired. This requires the starting and stopping of the projectile feeder, entailing the use of large forces.